Australia? Not so fast Bucko!

Let's start our day with sports (trying to shake up the blog a bit). The American Football Draft began on Thursday evening in the States. I will watch it this afternoon. Now the hardest trick that us American Ex-pats try and learn is how to avoid the news from our limited entertainment. I am curious as to who my beloved Dallas Cowboys picked, and I can't wait to find the online recap and the criticism of what Jerry Jones did (odds are he traded up or down-no way he could just draft...lol)....So for now, I hunker down and avoid the football news. The same of course is true (even more so) for American Idol and Survivor. American Idol is on here Thursday night with the results show Friday night. So from when I get off of work on Thursday, until I get to watch the show (I usually record it) I have to be careful on the Internet and with American emailers and phone calls. Of course all my carefulness goes out the window if my DVR *(TIVO) screws up...last week I failed to record Survivor. Then I spent lots of time online trying to figure out what I missed...lol. I now am double taping the shows that I really care about - just to be sure. One more sports note, Albert Pujols as of Wednesday night still no homers, in fact he was in the midst of a long hitless streak since my last blog. Nick wrote me to say he "was overjoyed". LOL, NIck, Albert may never get another hit...but, he got all the money and Karma can't change that!
I am watching an old American WWII movie (The Bridge at Remagen) on my MGM channel as I blog. It is funny watching English shows with Arabic subtitles, and sad when the Germans speak on screen, and the English subtitles are overlaid with Arabic ones and you can't read any of it...lol....these poor souls...
As you can gather from my posting, I am not (nor is my buddy Muzzy) traveling to Australia for business this weekend. All that's left is to send multiple apologies to the people that we were planning on visiting. I probably should do the prudent thing and not say anything else (for now). I am going to began to keep a notebook of all the things I wanted to blog about here that I could not because of self censorship to protect friends or myself. The Government of the UAE has deported and or jailed more than one blogger....And I can imagine losing this gig if I posted some things. So, maybe someday I can tell the tale of almost going to Australia on business.

Speaking of Australian Beef Ranches, we are very nervous about the case of "Mad Cow" that has been discovered in the US. The government here is very quick to ban beef from countries that have disease outbreaks. American beef was banned for almost 5 years after the Mad Cow outbreak in dairy cattle just after the turn of the century. South African Beef is currently banned (Hoof and Mouth) as is British Beef (BSE). Since about 25% of our sales is American beef products, we are nervously watching the news.
I have began to live a very routine life over here. Now that Bob and Nick have left, pretty much outside of work events are limited to dinner or lunch with Hayley or a date (not sharing yet, but it is looking up). If I am not doing either of those, Friday (my Sunday) now consist of breakfast at the Subway shop(egg and cheese on Sesame bread-yummy!), back to the apartment to blog, watch my taped shows and/or lounge at the pool. Then back to work on Saturday. It's boring, but it is a temporary routine, as the calendar continues to turn its pages as the months go by. I was really looking forward to my trip to Australia to break that routine. I now probably won't leave the UAE until late July to travel to Lebanon for Elie's wedding.
Today's excitement is going to be going to the barber, lol...it may be thinning out, but still needs an occasional shaping (I wonder how my comb over will look)...I apologize for the typo's, my browser no longer lets me go back into a posting to correct typo's. Life is just plain tough. lol...I look forward to seeing you soon, and I appreciate that you take time to check up on me. I would love to hear from you...

All my best....

(I figured out how to post pictures..above Shams and I)
This could lead to big blog improvements...lol!

Solitary life....Resort? or Isolationism?

Fred and I shared an interesting conversation while he visited last month. Am I an extrovert or an introvert? Am I social or anti-social? Not as clear cut as one would think. With loads of self reflecting time available to me...the answer is elusive. I am not afraid of public speaking, and I enjoy starting a conversation with a stranger (the victims of my tireless prattling on the elevators at work...well, I make it interesting -or annoying, once again all about perspective)... You may not know, that I don't enjoy parties or large gatherings. I am at my happiest in small intimate groups, a date or 3 or 4 maximum. More than that, oye Vay...I have started my post Rodz life, actually have started socializing again (Relax -I will detail more if it gets serious) It's funny how time passes so much better when you have distracting pursuits outside of work...lol.
I was thinking about my buddy Nick this morning. I was watching ESPN (God bless ESPN America) and saw that Albert Pujols has not yet hit a homer for the California Angels yet. When big Albert left St. Louis for California as a free agent this past winter (remember Nick is a huge St. Louis Cardinal fan) you would have thought that Albert had beat one of Nicks children with his bat. He was totally pissed, and hate flared from his perception of betrayal. Never mind, the reasons Pujols took the money and ran, he had pissed in Nick's Wheaties. Now, I know Nick, when he sees Albert Struggling- it's all about the Karma...enjoy it now Nick, might not last much longer.lol,
Muzzy and I have planned our "business trip" to Australia for the end on the month. We would leave here on next Saturday (the 28th) and after our 14 hour flight we would spend a couple of days in the Brisbane area followed by a couple days near Melbourne. Muzzy has lined up four different ranch's for us to visit. The trip has been blessed and suggested for a long time, but tickets still have not been purchased....Our visa's are purchased , but we will see...
We had a hard rain (still a rarity) on Wednesday evening. I was driving in it. Lasted about 15 minutes, the sky's are clean and the weather continues to heat up. Last year it didn't rain between March and January. It has rained 5 or 6 times this year....but the end has probably arrived. I don't expect it to rain again in Dubai til late December or early January.
My apartment complex has started to fill up with residents - you may recall that I moved in just before New Years and was the first, when my mom and brother visited in January there were probably a half dozen residents. Now I would say there are probably 40 residents. (third full).It is nicely furnished, and the pool is now busy...I really like it at my apartment...It is the equivalent of a post property in Atlanta ( or a $1200 a month apartment)...Really nice and cozy. I even bought a live tree/plant for my living room...I wonder who will be alive and living here in Dubai longer....me or my plant...lol.
I pretty much am down to three close friends at work (I love my team - but I am talking about the ones that I share outside of work quality time). Muzzy, Kelly and Hayley. I am looking forward to spending a week in Australia with Muzzy. Kelly and I try and have lunch a couple of times a week and I couldn't imagine continuing my job here if either one of them left. Outside of normal business it's my New York buddy Hayley. We both spent loads of time together since our break ups with our Significant others (her Arab my Philipina). Well she has just started seeing a French lad (I have not met him yet - so no approval yet...lol) and my burgeoning social calendar, means my off time will probably change dramatically. In that vane, Hayley and I are meeting at Fuddruckers in Festival City for lunch, and I need to scoot now, or be late.
Next week, I will give you my definite travel plans (Australia) or fill you in on what went wrong with the planning....have a great week!

Bananarama in Dubai?....yes, I typed it correctly...

Friday morning in Dubai, I am writing as I watch American Idol that I "DVR'd" last night (how did TV work before tivo?). Summer has broken out as temperatures have now started getting to 100 during the day. It's tax day weekend back in the good ole USA (yes, Fred sent my stuff to my $600 an hour international Tax attorney back in Atlanta -it costs plenty to not pay). Baseball is on almost every night (Lot's of day games in the states, 8 hour time difference and your 1 o'clock game becomes my 9 pm game - God Bless ESPN America)...life is good.
In just two weeks I am suppose to be leaving to tour Australia's beef Ranches with Muzzy, but the tickets haven't been purchased yet...hmmm, it's a long flight (16 hours?) but I will say if I never thought I would be in the Middle East, I can equally say I never thought I would go to Australia. I always have dreamed about going to Brazil...hmmm.
As I have been watching American Idol (wasn't a huge fan while living stateside- but things change here in the desert) it is interesting to me that things I would never think of are happening all over the world. I mentioned to one of my Filipino pals that I watched American Idol, and she immediately asked me if "I knew who Jessica Sanchez was?" She is the 16 year old singer from the Philippines (actually from San Diego- she is a Philippine) with a voice that reminds me of Christinia Agulaira. It seems that the Philippine servers that share a room in their company housing  go on the Internet each week and download her latest performance and root for her to stay alive in the competition (down to the final 7 now). As I cling to American baseball and football in living in my nice apartment with my two big screen tv's with money to see and do whatever I want, it's touching that there is a bunch of flatmates, homesick and proud. They don't have cable, in fact 1 bathroom for six friends, and the highlight of their week is watching and rooting for Jessica to win this years American Idol. They are living their dreams though Jessica....I am rooting with them.
Speaking of singing, this week the "Hard Rock Cafe" Dubai had their official grand opening. We sell them a few things (not nearly what we should!) and were invited as guests. So I attended with Reem (Kelly came with a friend also), but the grand opening musical act was Bananarama - This British pop group was actually pretty good (biggest hit? Cruel Summer) you know "it was a cruel, cruel summer" seemed appropriate for Dubai...it's been in some ways two years of Cruel summers here...number 3 right around the corner...
Speaking of Kelly, I will share a cute story about my lil blond buddy. She dated a guy for a while last year named Steve that I also know. Now one of my favorite pastimes is to tease Kelly (she is the prototypical girl next door) about whatever love life she is enjoying or has enjoyed. She traveled to Italy last week on business, and she returned Monday morning at 4 am. I asked her when she got to work that morning if she had seen her boyfriend (current man is Sam (Jordanian) for those of you keeping score at home) - you know 5 days in Italy without your boyfriend - well she proceeds to tell me he was flying out of Dubai as she was flying in, and they had met at the airport to share coffee - how romantic...(stick with me it gets better-lol) Well, then she says how weird it was as she walked to see her beau she got a text from Steve at 4:30 in the morning asking if she was back and when he would see her...well she thought it was bizarre that he would ask at that time of the morning and she politely blew him off on her blackberry before meeting Sam her current boyfriend. Now, what Kelly didn't know, is that morning as I spoke to Steve (Our boss) he mentioned that he had sent Kelly a message earlier in the week, and she sent it back before 5 am this morning that she was back, (her blackberry doesn't work outside of the UAE) but he said it was sorta cryptic. I thought at the time - that's odd....now Kelly shares me her story and I realize, that Kelly had gotten her "Steve's" confused and she still didn't get it...lol, as soon as I said Kelly, that was our boss Steve - not her ex boyfriend Steve- her eyes got huge, she frantically checked out the message/conversation she had had...lol...Lucky for Kelly nothing tawdry - and she has now changed his name on her Blackberry...lesson to be learned...Kelly and I have laughed all week about it.
Time to run...have a great week!

The Sun Stops hiding behind the Sand

The sky's of the Middle East have finally begun to clear, after 6 weeks of blowing sand that most days resembled thick fog, we got relief this week. I actually woke up to a brief thunderstorm on one morning while Fred was visiting, but the excitement of rain went away as dawn broke and there was no abatement to the sand. It was disappointing that Fred was cheated by mother nature from having beautiful weather that Dubai typically enjoys in March.
The weather definitely effected business, as we had a soft March where we only grew 52% over last year. I have a meeting with the top brass on Monday to assure them that we are back to sky rocketing growth in April.
It was great having Fred visit for a week, almost everyone that reads this (that I know about - the weekly readership is just over 50 people, and I know who about a dozen of the regulars are) realizes what a special friendship that Fred and I share. I like to think that people that get to know Fred get a better understanding of who I am, but as I get older and wiser (I hope) the realization is that Fred is just a normal person that gives other people the courage to be my friend....If a good guy like Fred is my best friend - I can't be all bad...lol.
Fred did get to enjoy the "Royal Buddah" with Hayley and our special friend/server "E E" from Miramar. About once every three weeks, Hayley and I go and have "Goon sod pong" or something like that (Fried rice, shrimp and extra egg). The food is good, but the wait staff treats my guests and I special. I think they wonder about why (and how) a guy like me has so many attractive friends to join me there (Hayley, Kelly, Rodz, Juvy....then there is Nick and now Fred....so the mystique of my attractive guests is now gone...lol.
Fred did take back a "stack of Benjamin's" back to the states (99 of them-we are obeyers of the law), and as he has mailed a couple of checks since he has gotten back to Knoxville, my financial yoke has been lifted from my shoulders. Half way through my contract, the focus switches from financial freedom to financial security. I am blessed with the opportunity that Bob and Hani gave me.
I have scheduled my vacations and business trips  for the next 5 months, as it now has been approved for me to fly back to America for the first couple of weeks in August. I haven't made firm plans for my visit and probably won't until my Airline ticket is bought and I know what city I will be flying into (Atlanta, NY, or Chicago). Just as exciting are a couple of trips I have planned for earlier. Muzzy and I are flying to Australia the first week of May to check out what they have to offer in beef and lamb (visiting several ranchers and deciding on a supplier to our company). I also have been invited to Elie Nader's wedding in Lebanon (the Country) in July. I am admittedly nervous about flying into the heart of the Middle East, but hopefully I will be brave enough to enjoy the trip.
Speaking about enjoying things, I stayed up until after 3 in the morning last night (that's Thursday for the time travel challenged) watching opening day baseball from Cincinnati as my beloved Reds beat the Miami Marlins. It was carried live by ESPN America. My buddy Dan Scott is traveling from Pennsylvania to Atlanta today to draft the remainder of our fantasy baseball team. Baseball is a great distraction and a warm reminder of the states. Adding ESPN and ESPN America to our available cable here a year ago, really has helped curb the loneliness that being half way around the world can bring. Baseball, American Football, and golf really help fill from April to December. I guess it made the timing of my mom and brother's visit in January and Fred's visit in March even better.
Nick is still interviewing for jobs back in the states. I turned in his Du cable stuff (they really wanted me to talk with them about where I "found" their cable boxes, but somehow I felt Nick's account number was all they needed)...lol. Now if I can just get the power and water people to the same understanding.
Speaking of water, it finally dawned on me something that they don't have here that we have abundantly in America (ok, there are lots of things they don't have here that we enjoy in the USA)...but the one that stood out to me this week....water fountains. Now it seems weird when you spend so much time in the malls and the temperature routinely hit triple digits 8 months of the year, that there is no public water for drinking. The same is true for the dining establishments, they all charge for bottled water. Clean, drinkable water....one of the things that you just take for granted.
I got to enjoy a couple of grand openings for customers this past week.  Ruth's Chris steakhouse opened a second location in the Dubai Marinia Address Hotel. Steve and I enjoyed a complimentary USDA prime ribeye for dinner on Tuesday. It was a nice evening chatting with the boss. Then last night, I enjoyed the grand opening of "Best Burger Forever" an upscale hamburger cafe with Muzzy, Kumail and their lovely brides. So in the span of a couple of days My boss accompanied me to a white table cloth restaurant for a fine dining experience, and I accompanied two fine employees to a burger and fry joint....lol, it pays to report to higher management - sorry Muzzy!
Time to get the day started, hope your day goes as well as my Reds did last night!
Enjoy the little things in Life, We won't be on this earth forever!